I. Stolen Property
"In the spiritual realm, a kind of stealing is going on in many lives. Satan is in the business of ripping us off." e.g. stealing our very purpose of living/things that have value with God and are of eternal significance p.11 Jn 10:10
Faded calling for long time Christians. p.13
Where did the faith go?
David learned the powerful truth that God recovers stolen property. p.19 1 Sam 30:16-20 'David and his men came to a moment when they chose to get up and go after stolen prpoerty." p.20
We have to also come to the moment to say "In the name of the Lord, I am not going to give up on my calling, my potential in life." p.20
Satan knows the importance of faith "the righteous will live by faith" (Rom 1:17) and that "without faith it is impossible to please God" (Heb 11:6) p.21 Real faith is our lifeline to God's grace and power.
Check instastory notes for Jan 5th, 2018.
We need to depend on God.
God can make you forget 'Manasseh' Gen 41:50-51
Can I trust God to lead me?
The forgotten standard of faith as a measure of the Christian life instead of outer things/denominational norms p.68 Many Christians make big decisions in life without the thought of seeking God.
"A faith-filled believer will pray earnestly until he finds God's will for things such as: changing jobs, moving..." p.71
Trust God completely instead of our own cleverness e.g. the negative exmple of Jeroboam 1 Kings 11, 14
Faith runs on a different clock "Many of our struggles about faith have to do with timing. We believe, at least in theory, that God will keep his promises--but when?" p.98 e.g. Zechariah and Elizabeth Luke 1:13-14; God does the impossible when we think it is past the timing already
God is drawn to prayer: Zechariah prayed. God revealed himself when people began to pray: Acts 10, Acts 4:31, Luke 11:1, Luke 1:13
Don't second-guess God
"The great battle of our spiritual lives is 'Will you believe?' It is not 'Will you try harder?' or 'Can you make yourself worthy?' p.105
"The timing of God is often a mystery to us, and even sometimes a frustration. But we must not give up. We must not try to arrange our own solutions." p.112
Overcoming Discouragement. Joseph's story.
Grace that is greater. Judah's story.
4-5 Jan, 2018
Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999
Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts
Friday, January 5, 2018
Thursday, January 4, 2018
38. The Prayer of Jesus: Secrets to real Intimacy with God - Hank Hanegraaff
Lord teach us now to pray Matt 7:29 "He taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law."
The Secret: "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." Matt 6:6
"Prayer does not simply maintain the Christian life, it is the Christian life..." p.10
"The absence of inwardness is the lost freedom we trade for addictions. ... When God fills our inner vacuum with his Holy Spirit, life works. When God does not fill the vacuum, a host of consuming appetites swarm through our better intentions. ...It all adds up to a kind of powerlessness, which always results from living too far from the Grand Enabler.
" -Calvin Miller p.11
Your Father Knows: Matt 6:31 "And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard bc of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."
F-A-C-T-S
Faith: "Faith is only as good as the object in which it is placed. ...it is the object of faith that renders faith faithful. The secret is in coming to know ever more fully the One to whom we pray." p.22
Jn 15:7, Rom 10:17
Adoration: Ps 95:6-7
Confession: "While unconfessed sin will not break our union with God, it will break our communion with God." 1 John 1:9 p.24
Thanksgiving: Rom 1:21, Col 2:7, 4:2; 1 Thess 5:16-18, Eph 5:20
Supplication: 1 John 5:14-15
Building our relationship. Matt 6:9 God's name be magnified
The city of God. Matt 6:10 your kingdom come, your will be done. "How gracefully has the Divine Wisdom arranged the order of the prayer; so that after things heavenly--that is, after the "Name" of God, the "Will" of God, and the "Kingdom" of God--it should give earthly necessities also room for a petition!" -Tertullian p.52
Bringing our requests Matt 6:11 Jesus was reminding his disciples that he was there to sustain them spiritually as well as physically. Each time we partake of communion we are reminded that he is "the bread of life" (Jn 6:35) p.60
The Compassion Award Matt 6:12 Forgiveness "It means that when you say you are sorry, you're supposed to say 'That's all right' and never think about it again." p.70
The Armor Matt 6:13 "we often underestimate the unmitigated hatred the Devil and his demons have for the things of God." p.76
Embracing the prayer of Jesus "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man..." Matt 7:24
Dec 2017-Jan 4, 2018
Nashville: Word Publishing, 2001.
The Secret: "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." Matt 6:6
"Prayer does not simply maintain the Christian life, it is the Christian life..." p.10
"The absence of inwardness is the lost freedom we trade for addictions. ... When God fills our inner vacuum with his Holy Spirit, life works. When God does not fill the vacuum, a host of consuming appetites swarm through our better intentions. ...It all adds up to a kind of powerlessness, which always results from living too far from the Grand Enabler.
" -Calvin Miller p.11
Your Father Knows: Matt 6:31 "And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard bc of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."
F-A-C-T-S
Faith: "Faith is only as good as the object in which it is placed. ...it is the object of faith that renders faith faithful. The secret is in coming to know ever more fully the One to whom we pray." p.22
Jn 15:7, Rom 10:17
Adoration: Ps 95:6-7
Confession: "While unconfessed sin will not break our union with God, it will break our communion with God." 1 John 1:9 p.24
Thanksgiving: Rom 1:21, Col 2:7, 4:2; 1 Thess 5:16-18, Eph 5:20
Supplication: 1 John 5:14-15
Building our relationship. Matt 6:9 God's name be magnified
The city of God. Matt 6:10 your kingdom come, your will be done. "How gracefully has the Divine Wisdom arranged the order of the prayer; so that after things heavenly--that is, after the "Name" of God, the "Will" of God, and the "Kingdom" of God--it should give earthly necessities also room for a petition!" -Tertullian p.52
Bringing our requests Matt 6:11 Jesus was reminding his disciples that he was there to sustain them spiritually as well as physically. Each time we partake of communion we are reminded that he is "the bread of life" (Jn 6:35) p.60
The Compassion Award Matt 6:12 Forgiveness "It means that when you say you are sorry, you're supposed to say 'That's all right' and never think about it again." p.70
The Armor Matt 6:13 "we often underestimate the unmitigated hatred the Devil and his demons have for the things of God." p.76
Embracing the prayer of Jesus "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man..." Matt 7:24
Dec 2017-Jan 4, 2018
Nashville: Word Publishing, 2001.
Monday, September 25, 2017
31. The Bible Method of Daily Living based on lectures by Matthew Henry - James R. Boyd, D.D.
-a cultivation of piety
-Mr. Henry's own practice was a constant effort to 'begin and spend and conclude each day with God." Besides the full and deliberate worship of God in his family, he abounded in secret prayer. It was his recourse in every undertaking.
-"What incomes of grace," he wrote, "yea, and outward good things, as far as they are indeed good for us, have we by an access to God in Christ! Such have a companion ready in all their solitudes, a counselor in all their doubts, a comforter in all their sorrow, a supply in all their wants, a support under all their burdens, a shelter in all their dangers, strength for all their performances, and salvation insured by a sweet, undeceiving earnest. What is heaven but an everlasting access to God? And present access is a pledge of it." p.12-13
I. HOW TO BEGIN THE DAY WITH GOD
-"It should be our purpose, also, daily to approach our God in prayer and in praise." p.23
"We have, or ought to have, something to say to God every day."
Ps 55:17, Ps 119:164, Heb 11:6,
"New every morning is the love
Our wakening and uprising prove;
Through sleep and darkness safely brought,
Restored to life, and power, and thought.
New mercies each returning day
Hover around us while we pray;
New perils past, new sins forgiven,
New thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.
Only, O Lord, in thy dear love,
Fit us for perfect rest above,
And keep us this and every day,
To live more nearly as we pray." -Keble
II. HOW TO SPEND THE DAY WITH GOD
Ps 25:5
"The devout believer waits on Him as the beggar waits on his benefactor, with earnest desires to obtain needful supplies, or as the diseased at the pool of Bethesda waited for the stirring of the water and for the expected cure." Ps 63:1 (p.42)
"...during and throughout the day we are to wait upon Him."
= to live a life of delight in God Ps 116:7, Ps 62:5
= to live a life of devotion to Him
"The will of God, therefore, is to be our rule of action every day." p.45
III. HOW TO CLOSE THE DAY WITH GOD
-I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone O LORD make me dwell in safety. Ps 4:8
-To compose ourselves to sleep: "The love of sleep for the sake of sleep is the characteristic of the sluggard, but as the divinely-appointed means of recruiting our physical energies--quite as needful as food--we are to employ it with thankfulness to Him who 'gives His beloved sleep.'" p. 83
"When each day's scenes and labours close,
And wearied nature seeks repose,
With pardoning mercy richly blest,
Guard me, my Saviour, while I rest!
And as each morning sun shall rise,
Oh, lead me onward to the skies!
And at my life's last setting sun,
My conflicts o'er, my labours done,
Jesus! thy heavenly radiance shed,
To cheer and bless my dying bed,
And from death's gloom my spirit raise,
To see thy face and sing thy praise." - Sir R. Grant
Application:
we must live a life of communion with God...In order to do this, we must have in our hearts a principle of grace, which, like a well of living water, may be continually springing up to life eternal (Jn 4:14)
20-25 September 2017
Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1998
-Mr. Henry's own practice was a constant effort to 'begin and spend and conclude each day with God." Besides the full and deliberate worship of God in his family, he abounded in secret prayer. It was his recourse in every undertaking.
-"What incomes of grace," he wrote, "yea, and outward good things, as far as they are indeed good for us, have we by an access to God in Christ! Such have a companion ready in all their solitudes, a counselor in all their doubts, a comforter in all their sorrow, a supply in all their wants, a support under all their burdens, a shelter in all their dangers, strength for all their performances, and salvation insured by a sweet, undeceiving earnest. What is heaven but an everlasting access to God? And present access is a pledge of it." p.12-13
I. HOW TO BEGIN THE DAY WITH GOD
-"It should be our purpose, also, daily to approach our God in prayer and in praise." p.23
"We have, or ought to have, something to say to God every day."
Ps 55:17, Ps 119:164, Heb 11:6,
"New every morning is the love
Our wakening and uprising prove;
Through sleep and darkness safely brought,
Restored to life, and power, and thought.
New mercies each returning day
Hover around us while we pray;
New perils past, new sins forgiven,
New thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.
Only, O Lord, in thy dear love,
Fit us for perfect rest above,
And keep us this and every day,
To live more nearly as we pray." -Keble
II. HOW TO SPEND THE DAY WITH GOD
Ps 25:5
"The devout believer waits on Him as the beggar waits on his benefactor, with earnest desires to obtain needful supplies, or as the diseased at the pool of Bethesda waited for the stirring of the water and for the expected cure." Ps 63:1 (p.42)
"...during and throughout the day we are to wait upon Him."
= to live a life of delight in God Ps 116:7, Ps 62:5
= to live a life of devotion to Him
"The will of God, therefore, is to be our rule of action every day." p.45
III. HOW TO CLOSE THE DAY WITH GOD
-I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone O LORD make me dwell in safety. Ps 4:8
-To compose ourselves to sleep: "The love of sleep for the sake of sleep is the characteristic of the sluggard, but as the divinely-appointed means of recruiting our physical energies--quite as needful as food--we are to employ it with thankfulness to Him who 'gives His beloved sleep.'" p. 83
"When each day's scenes and labours close,
And wearied nature seeks repose,
With pardoning mercy richly blest,
Guard me, my Saviour, while I rest!
And as each morning sun shall rise,
Oh, lead me onward to the skies!
And at my life's last setting sun,
My conflicts o'er, my labours done,
Jesus! thy heavenly radiance shed,
To cheer and bless my dying bed,
And from death's gloom my spirit raise,
To see thy face and sing thy praise." - Sir R. Grant
Application:
we must live a life of communion with God...In order to do this, we must have in our hearts a principle of grace, which, like a well of living water, may be continually springing up to life eternal (Jn 4:14)
20-25 September 2017
Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1998
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Veni, Creator Spiritus -Rabanus Maurus (776-856)
Come, Holy Spirit, Creator blest,
and in our souls take up Thy rest;
come with Thy grace and heavenly aid
to fill the hearts which Thou hast made.
O comforter, to Thee we cry,
O heavenly gift of God Most High,
O fount of life and fire of love,
and sweet anointing from above.
Kindle our sense from above,
and make our hearts o'erflow with love;
with patience firm and virtue high
the weakness of our flesh supply.
Now to the Father and the Son,
Who rose from death, be glory given,
with Thou, O Holy Comforter,
henceforth by all in earth and heaven. Amen
(quoted via How Would Jesus Lead Worship p. 107)
(quoted via How Would Jesus Lead Worship p. 107)
Saturday, January 7, 2017
8. Ordering Your Private World- Gordon MacDonald (re-read)
-live as a called person, not a driven person. Called people understand stewardship, know who they are, and know his/her mission.
-"But mindfulness is a matter of discipline and hard work. Mindlessness is the result of laziness and fear." p.105
Work at being thinkers. "Their minds are alert and alive, taking on fresh amounts of information every day, regularly producing new discoveries and conclusions. They commit themselves to the daily exercise of the mind."p.108
"Christianity is emasculated of its intellectual relevance. It remains a vehicle of spirituality and moral guidance at the individual level perhaps; at the communal level it is little more than an expression of sentimentalized togetherness." (Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind)
-Cultivate the inner garden. Solitude. Listen to God when you pray.
-No outer props necessary. E. Stanley Jones, Methodist missionary to India, when he was old and had a stroke: "I need no outer props to hold up my faith, for my faith holds me." p.149
7 Jan, 2017
Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003
R: I'm reminded of the importance of study and setting apart time for study, Sabbath, appointment with God. I am ashamed of the time I have wasted in amusement (not-thinking). Lord, please help me to be a faithful steward and to be controlled by a cultivated inner self that knows Your Presence because I have spent time listening to You.
-"But mindfulness is a matter of discipline and hard work. Mindlessness is the result of laziness and fear." p.105
Work at being thinkers. "Their minds are alert and alive, taking on fresh amounts of information every day, regularly producing new discoveries and conclusions. They commit themselves to the daily exercise of the mind."p.108
"Christianity is emasculated of its intellectual relevance. It remains a vehicle of spirituality and moral guidance at the individual level perhaps; at the communal level it is little more than an expression of sentimentalized togetherness." (Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind)
-Cultivate the inner garden. Solitude. Listen to God when you pray.
-No outer props necessary. E. Stanley Jones, Methodist missionary to India, when he was old and had a stroke: "I need no outer props to hold up my faith, for my faith holds me." p.149
7 Jan, 2017
Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003
R: I'm reminded of the importance of study and setting apart time for study, Sabbath, appointment with God. I am ashamed of the time I have wasted in amusement (not-thinking). Lord, please help me to be a faithful steward and to be controlled by a cultivated inner self that knows Your Presence because I have spent time listening to You.
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
A moving prayer-Anselm
"O God, I pray, let me know and love You, so that I may rejoice in You. And if I cannot in this life [know, love, and rejoice in You] fully, let me advance day by day until the point of fullness comes. Let knowledge of You progress in me here and be made full [in me] there. Let love for You grow in me here and be made full [in me] there, so that my joy may be great with expectancy while there being full in realization. O Lord, through Your Son You command--or rather, You counsel--us to ask; and through Him You promise that we shall receive, so that our joy may be made full. O Lord, I ask for what You counsel through our marvelous Counselor; may I receive what You promise through your Truth, so that my joy may be full. Until then, let my mind meditate upon [what you promised], let my tongue speak of it. Let my heart love it; let my mouth proclaim it. Let my soul hunger for it; let my flesh thirst for it; let my whole being desire it until such time as I enter into the joy of my Lord, the triune God, blessed forever. Amen."
(quoted via Gifted Response pp. 61-62)
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